Calls for more projects for South Yorkshire kids so they don't turn to gangs

After recent gang violence in Sheffield, we're hearing troubled children in South Yorkshire need more places to turn to get their lives back on track.

A new report's found 46,000 children across the UK are part of a gang.

Now there are calls in Sheffield for more funding for community projects so vulnerable kids are off the streets and doing something productive.

The Unity Gym Project in Broomhall's been doing just that - it engages young people through exercise but offers them counselling with problems and training to gain qualifications.

Saeed Brasab runs it:

"Young people face many challenges - whether it involves them making positive decisions - or often wrong decisions - and we're quite passionate in ensuring that young people have thse opportunities to do well in life.

"It's quite key that young people have somewhere where they feel safe, where feel that they're not judged. Because often young people, when they enter certain services, they do feel they're judged prior to getting the support."

Sheffield's seen a spate of trouble recently, with stabbings and shootings in an ongoing gang feud in Burngreave.

Saeed says projects like his need more funding so young people can be prevented from taking that sort of route in life:

"If we look at the cost of having a young person going through the criminal court system, if we look at the cost of having police officers coming to our local area, it's a lot of money. Could we do more if we work together to prevent that happening? Yes. Could resources be shared over? Certainly can. Those are the sorts of conversations we should be having.

"There are many young people who have the potential to do well in life but often lack the opportunities. We try and do all we can to ensure that young people have the opportunities and those xposures to succeed. That's essentially about giving young people a platform to be postive rolemodels for them."

• gangs
• sheffield
• South Yorkshire